Friday, April 20, 2012

Hamodia Publisher's Husband Being Investigated for Fatal Fire

Michael, Yechiel, and Nahman Lichtenstein, owners of the Buck Warehouse in Kensington where a recent fire occurred that resulted in the death of two fireman, are Gur Hasidim, a Hasidic Jewish group, from Brooklyn, New York.

Ruth Lichtenstein, wife of Nahman, is the publisher of Hamodia, the English version of a newspaper for very religious Jews. The first Hamodia was published 100 years ago in Eastern Europe while the Hebrew version has been published in Israel since 1950. The tagline of Hamodia is the daily newspaper for Torah Jewry.

Lichtenstein, whose paper has a website plus print circulation of 160, 000, is a regular stop for New York politicians seeking the support of the Orthodox community. Mayor Bloomberg, who had a policy during the last mayoral election of not giving interviews to any paper that did not endorse him, still met with Hamodia.

Hamodia, which means the informer in Hebrew, is often the only way to reach this bloc of active voters since religious Jews are discouraged from watching television and using the internet to avoid seeing forbidden images like women. Lichtenstein takes the religious prohibition of Jewish men to not view pictures of women seriously. Her paper has never printed a picture of Hilary Clinton even though they report on her frequently.

The receptionist at Hamodia, while confirming that Ruth was married to Nahman, would not comment on Nahman Lichtenstein’s business. She said, “I work for the paper not the Lichtenstein’s personally.”

Some in the Orthodox community are already agitating that she steps down as publisher due to the allegations against her husband.